The TV show “Suits” gained increased attention when Meghan Markle, one of its stars, became a duchess, but by then, the series was already in its seventh season and quite popular. The intrigue around the legal drama featuring the actress who captivated Prince Harry seemed to add a layer of interest. Despite its success, Season 8 faced the challenge of losing Markle and two other key cast members. Such significant exits often spell trouble for a series’ longevity, contributing to “Suits” being canceled after its ninth season.

Following this, the first attempt at a spin-off centered around Gina Torres, a former cast member, with the series “Pearson” debuting in 2019. Unfortunately, it managed only a single season. The franchise took a break and re-emerged in 2025 with “Suits LA,” featuring Stephen Amell known for “Arrow.” Before even finishing its first season, it was announced that “Suits LA” would not return for a second season. Low ratings, critical reviews, and a pivot in focus at NBC, “Suits'” network, were the main factors leading to this decision.

For every successful TV spin-off that captures viewers’ attention, numerous others quickly fade away, often for justifiable reasons. “Suits LA” stumbled from the beginning, earning negative feedback from critics and a mere 36% Rotten Tomatoes score. Critics noted that while “Suits LA” imitated the original, it lacked the substance to assert itself. However, some reviews held out hope that the show had the potential to improve if given a chance, and initially, NBC seemed willing to offer this opportunity — until it decided otherwise.

Sometimes a network is willing to forgive rough ratings for a new show and provide it with an opportunity to find an audience. Some of the all-time great shows had low ratings in their first seasons, maybe even the first few seasons — think “Seinfeld” — but a network was willing to stand behind the show because it knew the program would eventually get there in terms of audience numbers. “Suits LA” debuted to disappointing ratings, only to then see those already-lackluster numbers steadily drop week after week. NBC didn’t even bother to see if the show got a season finale boost before the network had seen enough, and decided it wasn’t willing to roll the dice on seeing if “Suits LA” would become one of those shows that rebounded after a shaky start. 

The surprising idea that led to the creation of “Ted Lasso” came from Jason Sudeikis doing an NBC Sports commercial in which he played an American football coach who finds himself coaching a soccer team in Europe. Fast forward 10 years, and “Ted Lasso” — with three seasons and a bunch of awards under its belt — ended up bringing more acclaim to Universal Television than “Suits LA” did. That might partly explain why NBC has expressed a renewed interest in amping up the live sports programming and scaling back on scripted shows.

In fact, alongside the announcement of “Suits LA” being canceled, NBC also axed four other shows. “We had a lot of shows that we had to pass on in order to put our schedule together,” said Jeff Bader, President of Program Planning Strategy for NBCUniversal Entertainment (via Us Weekly). “In the fall, the NBA is a huge priority for us. That is our biggest new show in the fall.” 

In recent years, as ratings have been down overall for traditional television networks in terms of sitcoms, dramas, and other scripted programming, live sports continue to be a consistently huge audience draw. In 2024, the entire top 10 most-watched primetime network television shows were sports broadcasts. So it’s no surprise that networks are going to continue to focus on that arena and have been quick to cancel anything but the absolute highest-rated scripted shows — including “Suits LA.”